NN – English Grammar Profiler
At A2, English users can use a range of determiners, such as No + noun. Following this noun phrase with a gerund must be at the very least B1. A search in the NOW corpus for: no _NN _VVG 1 NO PROBLEM GETTING 977 There was no problem getting the GPS information since we have to wait for the satellite to pick it up. listen A further search …
NO + noun + verbING Read More »
This structure is generally B2 grammar because it often comes with a wide range of general reference nouns without a determiner. However, more detail can be found in the English Vocabulary Profile regarding meaning and level: make fun of sb/sth = B2 to make a joke about someone or something in an unkind way make …
MAKE + noun phrase + OF Read More »
Why say “is of interest” instead of “is interesting“? ‘is of + noun‘ is more formal and in academic writing, we use the noun form of a word more often. More importantly, ‘of+noun’ functions as a noun in this position. Therefore, it can often collocate correctly with modifiers. For example: “greatest interest” is much more …
BE + of NOUN PHRASE Read More »
Much to my surprise, and Much to the surprise of someone, are ‘comment adverbial phrases’. This structure is not listed in the English Vocabulary or Grammar Profile, so we turn to the Longman dictionary: FORMAL used to say that someone feels very surprised, embarrassed etc when something happens A search in NOW corpus for: . …
MUCH TO + possessive noun phrase Read More »
A search in the NOW corpus for: _V to the _N 1 GO TO THE HOME 158924 2 CONSENT TO THE COLLECTION 127114 3 WELCOME TO THE DISCUSSION 120567 4 CONSENT TO THE USE 115313 5 STICK TO THE TOPIC 90554 6 RELATING TO THE ACCESSIBILITY 54792 7 DIRECTED TO THE FCC 54790 8 DEDICATED …
verb + TO THE + noun Read More »
A search in NOW corpus for: with _JJ _NN 1 WITH INDIVIDUAL CONTRIBUTORS 53037 2 WITH IMMEDIATE EFFECT 45008 3 WITH OTHER COMMENTS 37269 4 WITH MENTAL HEALTH 28159 5 WITH TAILORED CONTENT 27842 6 WITH OTHER PEOPLE 26595 7 WITH PRIME MINISTER 22167 8 WITH SPECIAL NEEDS 20738 9 WITH OTHER COUNTRIES 19341 10 …
WITH + adjective + noun Read More »
In the English Vocabulary Profile at B1: not believe/understand/hear/say, etc. a word = anything A search in iWeb corpus for: _XX _VV a word 1 N’T SAY A WORD 1726 Don’t say a word against my father. listen 2 NOT SAY A WORD 756 3 N’T UNDERSTAND A WORD 608 It was brilliant, even though I didn’t understand a word of it. listen 4 N’T BELIEVE A …
WORD (phrases) Read More »
In the English Vocabulary Profile at B2: to make matters worse = to make a situation more difficult, unpleasant, etc. If the most common example of to-infinitive + noun + comparative is listed at B2, then it would make sense that other less common should also be considered as B2. The closest form which is clearly …
to-infinitive + noun phrase + comparative Read More »
A search in iWeb for: annual conference|meeting|rate|report|review 1 ANNUAL REPORT 47760 Sustainability goals have been written into annual reports all over the world. 2 ANNUAL MEETING 45673 I hadn’t seen Melquiades for about 10 years and when we had our annual meetings in Lima, Peru a couple of years ago, the filmmakers found him. 3 ANNUAL CONFERENCE 24962 4 ANNUAL RATE 11484 5 ANNUAL REVIEW 6732
Here are 8 basic sub-categories of grammatical collocations: preposition + noun (see below) noun + preposition (see below) noun + to-infinitive (research on another page) noun + that-clause (click here) adjective + preposition adjective + to-infinitive adjective + that-clause There are 19 different verb patterns including verb + to-infinitive, verb + bare infinitive etc. For more information read. — …
grammatical collocations Read More »
Since you can use C2 nouns, here are some ways you can extend the complexity.
Here’s the most common vocabulary in the grammar collocation of ‘noun + to-infinitive’: An iWeb search for _NN _TO _VVI 1 WAY TO GET 225421 2 WAY TO GO 139189 3 TIME TO GET 116358 4 WAY TO MAKE 110685 5 YEARS TO COME 102714 This ‘future’ time expression is unlisted in the English Vocabulary …
noun TO-infinitive ‘way to get’ Read More »
A1 point 9 in the category of DETERMINERS is defined: possessive determiners ‘my’, ‘your’, ‘his’, ‘her’ and ‘our’ before nouns. A search in iWeb for: my|your|his|her|our _NN 1 YOUR BUSINESS 624027 You need to know a lot of things about how to make your business. TLC STUDENT EXAMPLE male Russia B2 2 YOUR HOME 598828 3 MY LIFE 576086 4 YOUR LIFE 560286 5 YOUR …
my | your | his | her | our + NOUN Read More »
A1 point 2 in the category of CLAUSES is defined: simple affirmative declarative clauses For example: We‘re different. People see us as being different anyway. listen Also at A1 is: negative statements of the main verb ‘be’, with contracted and uncontracted forms. For example: I‘m not a doctor. listen *The English Grammar Profile examples contain the verb ‘BE’. An iWeb search for: _NN _VB …
subject + verb Read More »
A1 point 1 in the category of CLAUSES is defined: affirmative declarative clauses with modal verbs. The English Grammar Profile examples include: ‘can’ and ‘will’. Future simple modality is also covered here. Here are STUDENT EXAMPLES: A lot of farmers can read and write, but they didn’t complete high school. PELIC Chinese female level 3 writing class. I will go to New York on Thanksgiving day. Korean female level …
CAN | WILL (affirmative declarative clause) Read More »
Here’s a student example of a determiner + uncountable noun: My teacher told me “enjoy the music and you will dance naturally.” PELIC Taiwanese female level 3 writing class A2 point 18 in the category of NOUNS is defined: form simple noun phrases by pre-modifying nouns with an increasing range of determiners. A2 point 24 in the category of NOUNS: form …
determiner + noun phrase (increasing range) Read More »